General structure:
More than just Meetings. Applicable to a variety of online collaborative activities, such as webinars, forums. This could also apply to team activities that are not based on electronic tools. However, the focus of this Profile is on activities that are mediated electronically because this is more pertinent to the context in which xAPI data is likely to be gathered.
Note that certain structural objects or events are regarded as equivalent in this, for example:
a session = a meeting = a webinar = a discussion channel = a notebook = a folder ;
or at a lower level within these, a motion = an agenda item = a topic of conversation = a discussion thread = a document.
So for tracking activities, it is reasonable to regard a meeting as the same kind of atomic object as a webinar etc. For Discussion Forums, this might not be so clear and worth some discussion.
Event/Object | Sub-object | Notes |
session | topic | |
meeting | agenda item | |
webinar | topic | |
Discussion channel | Discussion thread | Not all forums are set up this way |
notebook | document | |
MOOC | Assessment of participation & contributions has been hard. Would be good to have a way to data inform the facilitators |
Verbs
Initialized
Created the session, meeting, webinar, discussion channel
this is done by the moderator/facilitator/administrator
this may just be the booking
Note that this may need several timestamps eg the meeting scheduled start time(SST), actual start time(AST)
note that some participants may join a session before it is Opened
since it is the moderator/facilitator who Opens the session
Participants may not Join a Session that has not been Initialized
Note that this is not the same as Opened
The Actor who initializes the session is commonly the moderator/facilitator who Opens the session
but it does not have to be the same person
We recommend the use of ISO 8601 timestamps because
time zones are a challenge for distributed teams
Opened
started the session
Terminated
session ended unexpectedly, not as scheduled
or maybe should use Abandoned
Suspended
the meeting or session was temporarily halted e.g. tea break
The expectation is that the session will be resumed
Not used to indicate the actual end of the meeting
Not used to indicate that a member has left an ongoing session
Resumed
The session was restarted after a pause
Not used to indicate that a member has rejoined an ongoing session
Completed
session ended in expected fashion, as scheduled
could also use Adjourned
However, the definition given for this Adjourned suggests a temporary suspension, which is not consistent with common usage of the term (even though it may be technically correct).
Proposed
putting forward a motion, agenda item, discussion thread or poll
Seconded
similar to proposed a required action for some objects eg. a motion
Voted
action in support of or against a proposed motion, or in a poll
note that motions tend to be binary choices but polls can have many different options or structural types
note that polls may be similar to Questions in some other activities (eg. see Virtual Patient Profile)
not the same as 'decided', which would be the cause of some future action or activity.
Agreed
Decided
conclusion of a motion, poll
we suggest that in many situations, it is better to precede this verb with a definite call to action. Using 'Decided' as a way of indicating that a discussion thread or conversation has come to a conclusion is risky in many contexts
Closed
an agenda item or discussion thread or poll has ended
not used to indicate the end of a session, meeting, webinar
Sidebarred
time spent on activity that is tangentially related to the meeting process or content
not part of the main conversational thread
Interrupted
interjected into an ongoing session activity, outwith the normal flow
does not necessarily entail a change in topic
is not necessarily a bad thing
eg. a webinar speaker may have given permission to participants to interrupt a topic with questions on-the-fly, or there might be a question raised in the text chat bar, while she was speaking
note that you might need to consider how to handle timestamps with text/chat interruptions eg. the time that the interruption was posted might be different from the timestamp where it became active in the conversation or the speaker noticed it
Assigned
Delegated a task to a team member or participant by the team leader or moderator
Volunteered
Offered to complete a task
Asked
Solicited a team member to share an opinion or other contribution
Getting clarification from the moderator
Commented
this will be a very commonly used verb
Might also use Annotated
and two other definitions
Might be useful to distinguish between annotations to files/documents and comments in discussions
although there are advantages to conflating them
Might also use Posted
although this definition seems specific to discussion forums
note that in some discussion forums, you can comment on Comments, introducing a whole new stream
need to decide whether this constitutes the creation of a new thread or not
at the moment, this secondary stream is being regarded as a sub-thread
this is recursive so need to figure out how in the Object you are going to track this cascade of sub-threads
Tagged
Added or edited metadata for an object or file eg categories, keywords, descriptors
Such metadata is often, but not necessarily, intended for machine use
Not the same as Commented because metadata is often not visible as part of the regular information stream, unless specifically revealed
Redacted
topic or thread or comment removed from the record post hoc by the session moderator
we suggested such an item be flagged as no longer visible but that it not be deleted from the system, in case it needs to be reviewed later
Ruled
not sure if that is the best verb to use
applied a rule of order or process to get a session or topic back on track, or to bring a verbose participant thread or conversation back
some systems might only allow this by the session facilitator/chair/moderator
Joined
A member has joined a session that has already been initialized by the moderator/facilitator
note that the session may not have been Opened yet since the moderator may sometimes be late in joining
maybe should use Accessed instead
Left
A member has left an open session
Rejoined
typically after Left
but note that a disconnection may not be logged within the system actively as Left
May be difficult to discriminate from Joined in most systems
Or could use Resumed
But in the above notes, Resumed is used to indicate that the session as a whole has restarted after a pause, so this is not recommended.
Split
into parallel activities, such as small group discussions, concurrent threads
this is typically performed by the moderator/facilitator
this is an intentional divergence into concurrent activities, with the intention of merging again at some point
Forked
a divergence into a separate activity stream, without the specific intention to Merge or regroup
In team activities in computer programming, this could refer to forking into a different branch or version of the code; or it could refer to a discussion thread
Merged
from split parallel activities back to common activity
See above note about Forked for programming
Uploaded
contributed a file or other learning object to the common pool for the participants
Downloaded
collected a file or other learning object from the common pool for the participants
Removed
deleted a file or other learning object from the common pool for the participants
might be better to flag an object as unavailable rather than truly deleting it from the object store
but this decision lies with the programmers of the primary system, not the LRS activity tracking
Shared
changed the file access properties to include more or less participants
will commonly be part of the Uploaded verb
some systems may not keep these separate
Edited
make some change or addition to an Initialized file/document
this is not the same as commenting
some systems may demand that the file/document be Opened for editing, before this can happen; others may assume that a file/document is already Opened for editing once it has been initialized
Suggested
Proposed a change or addition within a version control system or change tracking system
eg. Google Docs suggestions vs direct editing
Accepted
a Suggested change is incorporated into the file/document
Rejected
a Suggested change is removed from the file/document
Scheduled
Create or edit a plan or timetable for carrying out a process or procedure, giving lists of intended events and times.
Referenced
Cited or referred to external data or source